I currently have a tomato plant planted in a pot on my porch. It is doing quite nicely and is tied to a 6' bamboo cane. Unfortunately my cane has started to lean a bit and I am afraid that as the plant continues to grow and eventually starts bearing fruit that the cane will not be able to do its job, or that the pot may fall over.

I am wondering what the best way to support the cane that is supporting the tomato plant? Or am I better off choosing a different support method for my potted tomato plants?

4 Answers
4

Adding a cane inside the pot should reinforce the first one and prevent mechanical failure.

This doesn't address the issue of the pot becoming top heavy and unstable. If it looks like it might fall over, add another cane (or two) so that the cane(s) rest on the ground outside the pot and counteract the instability.

For tomato plants, a conical cage that looks like this is the best way to go. This way, you provide support at each stage of the plant's growth and there are multiple points (on each circle) for you to tie the fruits to.

However, this requires that you plan in advance and set up the cage before the plant gets too big. There is no way you're going to be able to fit that onto a full grown plant.

Supporting your cane

Now coming to supporting your 6' cane, here's one cheap way using some twine and some turnbuckles. You'll need:

Some mason's line or strong twine (costs around $3-4 for a 100-feet roll. You'll need a lot less!)

While on a plant forum I stumbled across a method of using string to support tomato plants. I have not used it but it sounded promising: Link to String Discussion

I found the following quote at the above link:

If you are using string in a greenhouse then the best way is to tie
the string in a loose loop around the base of the tomato plant, then
wind it anti clockwise round the tomato and take the string to the
wire and tie it with a loop, if you leave plenty of string at the top
then as the plant gets close to the wire you can undo it and lower
the plant down a couple of feet so that the bottom which has cropped is
on the ground and the plant has more room to grow up. Well that's how
we used to do it in the old days, I must have strung many thousands of
tomatoes in my time. David